The present invention relates to methods and devices for organizing and storing various objects. In particular, the present invention relates to an organizer having a plurality of compartments and adapted to be hung in a room or closet.
Over time, storage areas such as closets and the like become disorganized and cluttered as items accumulate. For example, bedroom closets frequently become cluttered with shoes and various articles of clothing. As a result, items located within such storage areas are difficult to find when needed and frequently become damaged or broken upon contacting other items or upon being stepped on. Matched or paired items such as shoes frequently become separated.
In an attempt to solve this organization dilemma, various storage organizers including racks, shelves and drawers and pockets have been marketed. Although providing some organization to the storage area clutter, such organizers have numerous drawbacks. In particular, although racks and shelves elevate the stored items, the stored items frequently become cluttered and disheveled on the shelves or racks themselves. Moreover, because such racks, drawers and shelves are formed from rigid materials, such as wire, wood and metal, such organizers are cumbersome and difficult to set up, requiring additional mounting hardware.
Although organizers including drawers or vertical pockets individually store items, drawers and vertical pockets partially, if not completely, conceal the items being stored. To view and identify the stored items, a user must either open the drawer, peer down into the vertical pocket or initially position the item in the vertical pocket such that a portion of the item projects from the vertical pocket where it is exposed and susceptible to becoming dislodged or damaged.
One prior attempt to solve such problems associated with racks, shelves, drawers and vertical pockets has been the development of a shoe display bag and system such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,276. In particular, the shoe display bag and system provides a single column of shoe compartments formed from a flexible material such as lightweight canvas. Each compartment is sized to receive a single shoe.
While representing an improvement over the use of shelves, racks, drawers or vertical pockets for displaying and organizing shoes, numerous drawbacks associated with this system have been left unattended. In particular, because the mouths of the compartments face in a direction parallel to the rod supporting the system, the system is not well suited for use in closets. Although the system is described as including a hanger for enabling household use, the hanger increases hanging instability, while increasing the complexity and cost of the system. Moreover, the shoe display bag and system results in an inefficient use of storage space.
Thus, there is a continuing need for an organizer that is lightweight, that compartmentalizes stored items, that facilitates viewing of stored items, that is relatively stable and that efficiently uses available storage space.
According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an organizer for use with a closet rod extending along an axis includes a row of side-by-side compartments at least partially formed from a flexible material. Each side-by-side compartment has a floor, a pair of side walls extending from the floor and a mouth between the side walls. The organizer further includes a suspender coupled to the row of side-by-side compartments. The suspender is configured and adapted to hang the plurality of compartments from the closet rod such that each mouth faces a forward horizontal direction perpendicular to the axis of the closet rod when the organizer is hung from the rod.
According to yet another exemplary embodiment, an organizer for use with a closet rod extending along an axis includes a plurality of compartments coupled to one another and a suspender coupled to the plurality of compartments. The plurality of compartments are vertically and horizontally arranged with each compartment having a floor, a pair of side walls extending from the floor and a mouth between the side walls. The suspender is configured and adapted to hang the plurality of compartments from the closet rod such that the mouth of each compartment faces in a forward horizontal direction perpendicular to the axis of the closet rod when the organizer is hung from the rod.
According to yet another exemplary embodiment, an organizer includes a plurality of side-by-side compartments at least partially formed from a flexible material and a suspension device coupled to the plurality of side-by-side compartments. The compartments are at least partially formed from a flexible material with each compartment having a floor, a pair of side walls extending from the floor and a mouth between the side walls. The suspension device is configured to suspend the plurality of side-by-side compartments such that the mouth of at least one side-by-side compartment faces in a horizontal direction when the compartments are suspended.